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Jeff

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  1. Jeff
    Dragon Pass has a strongly varied climate. Boldhome is only about 120 miles from the Choralinthor Bay. Sea Season it gets warm wet winds from the south. Fire Season, it gets warm winds blowing from the southwest. Earth Season is dry with winds coming from the east. Dark Season alternates very cold winds coming across Peloria (although not nearly as cold as they were before the Glowline) with dry winds from the east. Storm Season has big thunderstorms coming across Peloria into the Pass.
  2. Jeff
    But one thing I really want to emphasize is that the Orlanthi of Dragon Pass are NOT Vikings, Irish or British Celts, or La Tene spiky haired Celts, or ancient Germans. They have a very different background, context, and society. And so naturally they have different architecture, different clothing, and different appearance.
  3. Jeff
    I'd certainly commission art that looks far less Northern European today.
  4. Jeff

    Guilds

    Jeff replied to Joerg's topic in Glorantha

    Pottery, at least in Dragon Pass, Kethaela, and Maniria, I think is associated with the Earth goddesses. A subcult of Ernalda/Asrelia (let's just call her the Pot Goddess), she is the secret of making and decorating wombs of clay that hold grain, wine, oil, the remains of the dead, and much more. She is old - a daughter of Asrelia and Lodril, or perhaps Ernalda and Lodril (Earth cults often treat them as the same goddess, just at different stages of their life)
  5. Jeff

    Guilds

    Jeff replied to Joerg's topic in Glorantha

    No it doesn't. Look Issaries and Argan Argar have very different roles. Issaries is the god of the marketplace. He protects its neutrality, protects his worshipers from thieves and cheats, and is the god of a place where commerce can happen. Argan Argar is the god of surface darkness. He's not a god of markets. He's a god that is the darkness on the surface world - he lets you walk in the darkness, he brings the shadows, suppresses the light, and bars passage into the deeper darkness. He's the friendliest of Darkness gods towards the Earth, and as a result is sometimes seen as a "trade god" - but that's actually not his mythic or magical role. His cult monopolizes peaceable communication between the Darkness (trolls) and the surface world, which is why if you want to trade with the trolls, you need to go through Argan Argar.
  6. Jeff

    Guilds

    Jeff replied to Joerg's topic in Glorantha

    If you want to be part of the merchants' guild, be protected by Issaries' magic, and have the right to sell goods in the Issaries market, I suspect you need to be at least a lay member (if not an initiate) of Issaries. Heck, in many cities, the Issaries market is the Issaries temple. When the members of the temple acts in city affair, we often call it "the Merchants Guild". But we'd be just as accurate to say "the Issaries cult".
  7. Jeff
    RQ uses the tick box system. We've added a little bit on "Experience Between Adventures" which Greg wrote back in 1981 as part of the Dragon Pass Campaign materials.
  8. Jeff
    New Pavis was built by Sartarites. The Sartarites know much about stonemasonry (more than most human cultures but not as much as the Flintnail cult), and it is safe to say that they regularly use stone (at least for the foundational walls) in their buildings. It is likely that widespread stone use comes in the wake of building Boldhome, but in the following century it is pretty standard for Sartarites. Add to that the ongoing influence from Esrolia (always important, but became even more important post-1492), and you have the Sartarite style.
  9. Jeff
    Big healing magic - like Heal Body or Regrow Limb or Restore Characteristic (not to mention Resurrection) requires Fertility or Harmony magic. But Heal Wound is a Rune spell with countless names, known by countless cults, with countless different operating assumptions. Like all common spells, the rules effects are the same (albeit with different Runes used by different cults) so all these different spells are lumped together under the rubric of Heal Wound. And Glorantha is darned dangerous - and RuneQuest is lethal. Even with healing magic, characters will die. Without healing magic, characters would drop like flies.
  10. Jeff
    The only piece of "canon" that contradicts this is Sartar Kingdom of Heroes' reference to log longhouses. Which I already amended in the Guide to state that: "most Orlanthi reside in sturdy, all-purpose wood, stone, or half-timbered houses (called a "hall" or a "longhouse") appropriate for the weather and resources in the region. A typical stead includes a couple of longhouses, each housing one or more nuclear families and often their livestock; villages typically have more. Other buildings include sheds for animals, hay, and other storage, workshops, and other outbuildings." Given that said description covers everything from Esrolia to Fronela, it hardly seems to restrict me. So just to restate: most steads in Sartar and Heortland consist of a group of buildings arranged in an Earth Rune formation around a courtyard. They typically have stone foundations, and then are build of wood, stone, or half-timber, depending on the local resources. The difference between Inner and Outer Hearth is who is permitted within. You entertain guests in the Outer Hearth, family in the Inner.
  11. Jeff

    Guilds

    Jeff replied to Joerg's topic in Glorantha

    You likely belong to the cult of Gustbran the Bonesmith, or the Bonesmith Brotherhood, or the Smith Street Association, or Flaming Hand Family. But we'll call it the Redsmiths Guild for our own sanity.
  12. Jeff

    Guilds

    Jeff replied to Joerg's topic in Glorantha

    I should have looked at the new Runequest for the boxed text I had: Guilds Gloranthan guilds are quasi-kinship societies organized around a craft or occupation. In most cases, a member is “adopted” into a guild. Guilds also serve as cults to their patron spirit or founder, and offer regular sacrifices and feasts. In most cities, one must belong to a guild to have the right to practice a trade, but the guild has some sort of collective liability to outsiders. Each guild tends to be independent; belonging to the Redsmith Guild in New Pavis does not make you a member of the Redsmith Guild in Boldhome! In large cities, there may be more than one guild for the same occupation – Nochet is notorious for street fights between rival guilds.
  13. Jeff

    Guilds

    Jeff replied to Joerg's topic in Glorantha

    By "guild" we mean quasi-kinship groups organized around a craft or occupation. Traditionally, one is "adopted" into a guild, offers regular sacrifices to their patron spirit or founder, and usually has some sort collective liability to outsiders (but also internally handles disputes between its members). Within many cities, you need to belong to a guild to have the right to practice a trade. In many cases, the guild membership is synonymous to belonging to a cult or subcult. Examples include the "Merchants Guild" and the Issaries cult; "Redsmiths" and Gustbran; Boatsmen and the local River or Sea cult); Potters and "the Potter Goddess" (an Ernalda Asrelia sub-cult); and Brewers and Minlister.
  14. Jeff
    The steads in Dorastor are frontier steads of the Talastari in the Skanthi style. Given the proximity to Dorastor, those steads are fairly hastily bullt (like the sod homestead in the Cherokee Outlet my grandmother was born in). The settlements in Dragon Pass are older (more than a century old) and their rulers far wealthier and cosmopolitan than those of the Bilini (not to mention the Skanthi).
  15. Jeff
    Spending every winter in the Alps changes one's outlook in a different direction. In much of the Italian alps you get plenty of precipitation but still have a lot of mediterranean style architecture (alongside typical Bavarian or Tiroler style buildings). Given that the Heortlings are from Kethaela, I strongly suspect that their buildings look more Esrolian than folk give credit.
  16. Jeff
    For style, look at old houses built around a courtyard in the Vinschgau or other parts of Alto-Adige (I took plenty of pictures of stone and timber houses some 4 or 5 centuries old built around a courtyard in the Vinschgau). Although the western slopes get as much as 175cm of precipitation, the eastern slopes and protected valleys get closer to 75 cm. Roof is slanted and covered with wood, thatch, stone tiles or terracotta tiles.
  17. Jeff
    The normal stead in Dragon Pass looks like this:
  18. Jeff
    Won't make any difference for spirit magic spells like Healing 1+. Heal Wound is a common spell and has every Runic variation (yes even Death cults have spells that allows one to shrug off mere corporeal damage).
  19. Jeff
    I had a much more limited art budget back then!
  20. Jeff
    The Esvularing are viewed by other Orlanthi as people who follow a strange school of thought and have strange traditions. They are not heretics (Theyalan polytheism doesn't really have the concept of heresy or orthodoxy since every temple tends to have a different subcult, a different associated god, etc - there's a awful lot of diversity there). Of course, they are clannish about their magic secrets - as are most other Orlanthi.
  21. Jeff
    18 POW, 5 Rune Points. Its good to be a Rune Lord.
  22. Jeff
    I suspect the ONLY Thanatari heads that can replenish Rune points are those of Thanatar cultists. Doesn't matter if they are living or breathing - I don't think you can bring a head into an Orlanth ceremony!
  23. Jeff
    Thanatari heads work the same way as always. They can continue to cast Rune spells until they run out of Rune points (making effectively each spell one use), as they cannot replenish Rune Points. BTW, Issaries Spell Trading still works and is very useful.
  24. Jeff
    Temple size does limit the range of spells you have access to. If you want to get the full range of special spells known in common by all variations of the cult, you need to go to a minor temple for at least one major holy day a year. If you want to get the full range of special spells, plus common magic, plus a subcult's special spell or an associate god's special spell, you need to go to a major temple for at least one major holy day a year (and identify which subcult you are participating in). And so on. This is really easy to do with cults like Orlanth and Ernalda, where every clan has a minor temple and every tribe a major temple (and great temples are plentiful). Much harder to do with smaller cults like Humakt or Storm Bull or Lhankor Mhy, where minor temples can be few and far between, and there may be only one great temple in all the world.
  25. Jeff
    Social organizations, particularly cults, are hard-wired into RQ2 and RQ3. An adventurer without a cult (defining that broadly to include spirit cults and sorcerers) will always be a grave disadvantage against someone who does belong to a cult. When even a broo or a dark troll has a cult that can teach it magic, be a source of rune magic, and give it allies, a player character would be well-advised to do the same!
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